Did you know Prince could play some serious bass? Whether he played or one of his amazing bass players did, his songs often contained memorable bass moments. This inspired me to come up with a bass line the Purple One might have approved of.
In this video, I show you exactly how to play this line and then how to create fills and embellishments of your own.
​Drums
As always, start slowly and piece the different phrases together until you have the full picture. The tempo is 126BPM so set your metronome there or check out these exercises to really test yourself. Alternatively, play along to this awesome drum beat recorded by Jon Howells (check out his amazing remote recording site).
TAB/Notation
Keep the line punchy and the notes nice and short. Hand shifts are key to clean and precise execution as is using the correct fingering patterns.
Here are some related lessons you might want to check out:
THE MINOR AND MAJOR BLUES SCALES ON BASS GUITAR
9 RHYTHM AND BLUES/SOUL BASS PATTERNS
HAMMER ONS, PULL OFFS, GHOST NOTES, STRING BENDS, SLIDES AND VIBRATO
Fills
When playing fills over dominant chords, you have lots of options. The minor pentatonic, major pentatonic, blues scales and mixolydian mode all work over this line. The fills I was using mostly comprised of notes from the following diagram. Mix up ideas from the Bb minor pentatonic (filled-in circles), Bb major pentatonic (white circles), blues (square notes are the ‘blues’ notes) and mixolydian scales (the diamond is the dominant 7th).
Download the TAB/Notation and diagram above
The more bass lines you know the better. This also applies to bass players. Study the instrument hard and you will soon work out how to create your own lines and develop your own voice. Let me know if you have any questions or if you want me to make a video or lesson on anything.
